Although unused to the
melting mood, the old lady wiped from her eyes a tear, whether in
sorrow or sympathy for outraged humanity, or in compliment to the
pathos and power of her favorite preacher, I was too young to know or
have an opinion. I remember well, however, that she cried, for she
pinched me most unmercifully for laughing at her, and at home spanked
me for crying. Dear old grandmother! but yesterday I was at your grave,
where you have slept fifty-two years, and if I laughed above thy mould
at the memory of the many bouts we had more than sixty years ago, and,
from the blue bending above, thy spirit looked down in wrath upon the
unnatural outrage, be appeased ere I come; for I should fear to meet
thee, even in heaven, if out of humor! The roses bloomed above
you--sweet emblems of thy purity and rest--and there, close by you,
were the pear-trees, planted by your hands, around the roots of which
you gathered the rods of my reformation; for I was a truant child. You
meant it all for my good, no doubt; but to me it was passing through
purgatory then, to merit a future good in time.
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